ABSTRACT
Sarada Mandiram is now struggling to retain its self-image. The values of the Nayar aristocracy, with the added ideals of service to the poor (first publicised by Vivekananda and given respectable status by Gandhi) were a workable combination when the Institution was emerging as a separate entity, that is, between 1948–1953. However, the aristocracy exists today only in the minds of its impoverished members, and the ideal of service to the poor is a most unpopular cause with its overtones of condescension.
